Sin agua y suministros básicos para sobrevivir, y sometidos al tiránico poder de cuatro grandes corporaciones, los habitantes del planeta Marte claman por la llegada de un salvador. Conviértete en su particular Mesías en este prometedor juego de acción y rol desarrollado por los creadores de Of Orcs and Men.
Ambientado 200 años en el futuro en un planeta Marte plenamente colonizado por los humanos, el equipo responsable del interesante Of Orcs and Men está dispuesto a dejar su marca en 2013 con un prometedor título de acción y rol al que no parece faltarle de nada. Y es que tras superar la difícil situación financiera en la que se encontraban hace un par de años y por la cual este ambicioso Mars: War Logs detuvo completamente su desarrollo, el equipo de Spiders regresa con fuerzas renovadas para finalizar uno de sus proyectos más ambiciosos.
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El héroe de los marginados
Los sueños de grandeza y prosperidad con los que los primeros colonos pisaron Marte desaparecieron hace mucho tiempo. La realidad, la triste y cruda realidad, es que los habitantes del planeta rojo viven sometidos al control de cuatro grandes corporaciones. Empresas que se han alzado con el poder en esta distópica y descompuesta sociedad propia de los mejores relatos Cyberpunk, en la que las personas ni tan siquiera cuentan con la garantía de tomar un buen trago de agua potable.
En la piel de Roy "Temperance", estará en tus manos devolver la esperanza a este pueblo sometido, no sin antes ensuciar tus propias manos con la sangre de los enemigos. Todo ello a través de una intensa y prometedora aventura de acción y rol en tercera persona que no parece olvidar ninguno de los elementos más característicos del género como puede ser la libertad de acción, un buen trasfondo argumental, o un intenso sistema de combate.
En este último caso, a diferencia de lo visto en Of Orcs and Men, Mars: War Logs apostará por batallas en tiempo real más cercanas a los juegos de acción en tercera persona que a una aventura rolera... aún a pesar de conservar su esencia. En este caso, dándonos total libertad para escoger el estilo de combate de nuestro héroe, que podrá aprender una gran variedad de artes marciales con armas a melé, emplear ciertas herramientas de combate a distancia, e incluso adiestrarse en el arte de la tecnomancia -la magia, para que nos entendamos-.
La radiación ha dado vida a abominables criaturas que nos pondrán las cosas muy difíciles en ciertos momentos de la partida.
Como curiosidad, la obra de Spiders también incluirá un potente sistema de artesanía, que facilitará la creación de nuestras propias armas y la posibilidad modificar las ya existentes. De este modo, por ejemplo, una simple barra metálica podrá convertirse en una demoledora maza de combate, o adquirir daño adicional relacionado con la electricidad.
Acción y consecuencia
De forma similar a lo visto en otros juegos de rol, a lo largo de esta prometedora aventura tendremos ocasión de relacionarnos con decenas de personajes muy distintos entre sí, que llegado el caso podrán incluso unirse a nuestra causa. Todo dependerá del trato que les dispensemos durante las conversaciones, o de cómo hayamos actuado previamente a determinados acontecimientos. Lo que no está del todo claro es si habrá alguna forma de controlar a estos personajes secundarios, o únicamente nos limitaremos a manejar al héroe de la aventura.
No menos importante resulta también la aparente libertad de acción con la que contaremos a la hora de afrontar determinadas situaciones de juego, ya que nuestro protagonista podrá ser un especialista en la lucha cuerpo a cuerpo al que no le importe nada enfrentarse a todo ser vivo que se cruce en su camino, un experto en el sigilo capaz de pasar inadvertido entre sus rivales, o un ingenioso guerrero con gadgets para todo. Las opciones, en este caso, parecen ser bastante más amplias que las vistas en el citado Of Orcs and Men, que pecó precisamente de estar muy limitado a unos patrones jugables muy concretos.
Cada corporación dominará su territorio a su manera. Las habrá muy militarizadas, y otras con carácter religioso especializadas en el arte de la tecnomancia.
Esta forma de actuar, y el cómo respondamos a las conversaciones con otros personajes, determinarán además el desarrollo del argumento, que presume de ofrecer variables suficientes como para que sintamos la necesidad de rejugar la aventura en varias ocasiones. A lo que debemos sumar un apartado audiovisual de gran factura, con un diseño de escenarios y personajes muy llamativo.
Por todo ello, esperamos con mucha ilusión el estreno de este Mars: War Logs. Una prometedora aventura de acción y rol para PC, Xbox Live Arcade y PlayStation Network que si todo sale según lo previsto, se publicará en primavera de 2013.
The digital marketplaces are growing every day, offering deeper, ircher, more compelling experiences than ever before, and fleshing out their offerings to include far more than retro throwbacks, re-releases, and arcade-tinged fun-fests. With the middle ground shrinking faster than ever, and double-A setups forced to look to avenues other than traditional retail, these digital platforms - with their variable price points and convenient routes to audiences - are the ones that benefit.
So it is that the idea of a fully-fledged, RPG, replete with 3D real-time gameplay, dialogue choices, variable companions, a relatively rich crafting system, side quests, and an expansive skill tree cropping up on such platforms maybe isn't quite as farfetched as it used to be.
Mars: War Logs Preview | The Logs of War
Of course, that's not really saying much. It still sounds wildly ambitious, almost too good to be true. The fact is that we've seen precious few games such as that outside of a rather niche PC existence. Dungeon crawlers can work, as can well-paced narrative vignettes, and there's no doubt that we're seeing bigger and better games hitting the digital services; but we're talking about role-playing games. A truly expansive, Western RPG on XBLA and the PSN? Some might scoff at the perceived impossibility of such a thing.
The folks at Spiders clearly like a challenge, because Mars: War Logs is a game that seems specifically designed to render the impossible possible.
As the title suggests, the game unfolds on the surface of the Red Planet itself, where a bunch of nefarious multinational conglomerates have gobbled up all of the limited resources that the planet has to offer. The major water companies of Mars have become the superpowers constantly squabbling over the few precious minerals left, even as radiation-poisoned mutant creatures lurk in the caverns and crevices surrounding settlements, and swathes of the downtrodden and disaffected are pressed into manual labour. It seems a little like Red Faction squashed together with Total Recall, and the game will shove you into the boots of Roy 'Temperance' - a gruff "renegade" with a rather large amount of baggage in his past.
Mars: War Logs Preview | The Logs of War
Being a person with a fair amount of 'life experience' already, Roy has a number of abilities and skills that can be unlocked and upgraded, and he knows his way around a bit of lead piping. An early hands-on battle we got stuck into saw us saving a young boy named Innocence from a band of thugs. Combat is simple to begin with - X for a light attack, Y to break an enemy's guard - but soon becomes fleshed out as you learn to block and evade, make the most of any companions travelling with you, and later on learn how to harness the arts of stealth and Technomancy. In action, Roy seems a little clunky - Bayonetta this ain't - but there are promising little touches, controller hotkey mapping for certain skills, and having the ability to pause the action for a tactical breather as you plan your next move is a good move. In a later level, where Roy finds himself set upon by mutant rats, he pulls out a firearm, with a flick of the right stick changing the target, and we dispatch them with ease.
"We wanted to make it an immersive experience, and felt that the best way to do this was through direct action," associate producer Walid Miled told us. "But you are not restricted to this course of action. Later on you'll be able to unlock stealth options so you can sneak up on enemies, and the Technomancer powers are a lot of fun too."
Mars: War Logs Preview | The Logs of War
Taking deep into some of the later levels, and maxing out Roy's powers, Miled showed us what he meant. Although players won't be able to become all-powerful in terms of maxing out every aspect of Roy's skill tree, there's apparently "plenty to play with" (although no hint of re-spec options at the moment). Instant takedowns can be achieved through judicious sneaking, and you can even hide the bodies of your foes to avoid detection. Alternatively, you can blast enemies with chain lightning, or deliver a stunning shockwave, or a cloud of debuffing effects. Loot and scavenged parts can be shoved together in a number of different ways thanks to the game's impressive-looking crafting system as well. There'll be heavily armoured enemies, shielded foes, and even other Technomancers to take on, so having the right tools for the job and a skill set suited to your style of play will no doubt help. Miled tells us that mini-bosses will be scattered throughout the game, before cheekily giving us a sneak peek of an outlandishly sized beast . There's only one massive boss battle in the game, but he's pretty damn big.
Roy will not be alone, though. Companions will apparently form a large part of the game too, and Miled demonstrated how your actions and dialogue choices in the game can affect the relationships that Roy has with various companions throughout the game, documented in a menu tab marked 'Reputation'. "You can see that after you beat up all of those guys, Innocence is now a little afraid of you," Miled explains after the first fight. "The way are with those around you, and the actions you take, these will define how characters act towards you, whether they'll help you or not, give you items as so on."
Mars: War Logs Preview | The Logs of War
Of course, being a renegade, Roy doesn't have much patience for people, so there's actually an option in-game whereby you can kill certain side characters and steal their "vital fluids", according to Miled, which can be used as something of a black market currency in the game. "Of course, if you do that, then certain side quests will disappear, some people will hate you for a while, and you won't be able to get certain items." We noticed that one of the characters on Roy's companion roster had "Loves" next to her name and, indeed, we were told that there will be characters that might turn Mr. Temperance into Cpt. Romance. "Yeah there are romance options in the game," Miled revealed. "They're not as deep as Mass Effect's, but there are some characters you can romance."
That last line is of great importance, because it rather encapsulates our initial experience of Mars: War Logs. It's a beguiling game, to be sure, one that has all of the features you'd expect from a game with a much larger development team, budget, and price point, but it's simply been packaged slightly differently, and noticeably given a good trim. The first question, once hit with that low price point of 15 Euros (probably around 1200 MSP), has to do with where corners have been cut.
Mars: War Logs Preview | The Logs of War
It's clear to see that there's still work to be done to iron out some of the clunkiness. There were abundant glitches, unfinished lines of code and dialogue, and the animations (particularly in combat) were hardly what you'd call smooth. But our preview build was, as Miled told us, a relatively old build, and that many of the little kinks have been sorted in the meantime. It's not the prettiest game - the rusty dusty look is everywhere, understandably - and we got little indication of the sound design nor voice work, which was completely absent from the build we played.
More so than any other genre of game, RPGs make for infuriating preview material. There are real glimpses of promise here, and it's clear that Spiders have done a good job of trying to incorporate as many elements in as they possibly can, butt there's no way we can possibly make an early value judgement on the plot, pacing, or progression. We're told that the running time is around 15-20 hours, which seems appropriate given the price point, yet one can't help but wonder if the studio haven't over-extended themselves. How deep of an RPG experience can you expect from 15 hours of gameplay, after all?
Mars: War Logs Preview | The Logs of War
It's a bold project, and you have to commend Spiders for giving it a shot; the key components are all there. Moreover, Roy Temperance is frankly a cracking name for a protagonist? It's just a shame that this flair for nomenclature didn't extend to the game's title. When faced with a choice of terms for an epistolary narrative, always go with 'Chronicles'. It sounds more epic. 'War Logs' conjures up connotations of a soldier penning a journal whilst squatting timidly on the loo.
Crackman escribió:ya ha salido el juego...algun comentario mas...? merece la pena realmente?